Sunday, July 23, 2017

GROW UP.

I have been severely disappointed these past few days by the poor behavior of so-called adult doll collectors.

I'm used to their obnoxious, entitled behavior and their thinking every single release has to be solely for them, despite the fact that they chose to collect playline toys for CHILDREN, but I have seen some extremely bad attitudes since SDCC began and this seriously needs to stop.

Now I try to keep this blog a little teensy weensy bit more professional than the rest of my spaces. Gods do know I have a potty mouth, but I try to keep that language away from here, because I'd like this to be an all ages space.

Writing this is going to be a severe test of that restraint, because I am so disgusted by my fellow collectors that only that level of language can truly describe them.

However, I'm going to give this a shot!

First of all, it is extremely bad behavior to go into public spaces for properties for children and swear at the people running them, as if the big decisions were made by them. Those spaces have kids that access them and they don't need to see adults acting like mewling babies. I have blocked over a dozen people on Facebook since the reveals started for doing exactly this.

UNLESS YOU ARE A CHILD, THE TARGET MARKET OF MONSTER HIGH AND DC SUPERHERO GIRLS IS NOT YOU.

Again for the people in the back.UNLESS YOU ARE A CHILD, THE TARGET MARKET OF MONSTER HIGH AND DC SUPERHERO GIRLS IS NOT YOU.

Do not sully the public spaces of these properties with your adult language and entitled nonsense. Do not attack people that have nothing to do with the big decisions. Do not swear at people you know that once worked for the brands you follow.

Seriously, just put the adult pants on and treat people with respect. You're being rude over toys.

Toys.

Things for children to play with.

So let's stop ruining them for children, shall we? Let's stop complaining every single muffinfluffing time something new comes out and it isn't exactly to your very adult specifications. I swear, Mattel could release a line of Monster High baby teethers and these people would complain they weren't articulated enough.

Second point: sometimes lines change.

Monster High's target market was always kids, but with the reboot, it has skewed decidedly younger. All of this obnoxious behavior because they are now doing things for much younger children is actually far more childish than the new target market.

If MH wants to have a family-themed line and expand their reboot with new characters that weren't part of canon before, let them. Don't complain every time something that doesn't fit the original canon happens. Because unless you're completely stupid, you should have realized canon REBOOTED. Anything goes now and they don't have to follow what happened before. The family line is decidedly aimed at the younger fans. So let them have it and just stop whining.

We're having to deal with less MH product on the shelves, which means there isn't as much room for the types of dolls you're used to. That sometimes happens with a reboot such as this. If you really cannot handle this, you can try to petition them or whatever it is the people on Tumblr think they can do, but you'd be better off just finding another line that does suit you or concentrate on collecting some older MH stuff you missed. Perhaps do a blend of both and collect the few more adult-aimed dolls they provide as well as finding something new to obsess over.

Frankly, I'm thrilled MH was not at SDCC this year. Their target market has changed such that it doesn't exactly fit anymore. You don't see the other lines aimed at younger kids there. Enchantimals at SDCC! Yeah, no. Plus, we got easy access to an amazing doll set that you otherwise would likely have vastly overpaid for, unless you had the good fortune to go or know someone who was going. I can't wait to get that set in my hands, because it looks beautiful and mostly well thought out. (We won't talk about Ghoulia's so not appropriate outfit for what she's supposedly doing.)

You guys have to let this go. The line has changed and it's not right to attack Mattel for it or make things uncomfortable for the kids and people who do still enjoy it. Meeting every new item or show with a bunch of naysaying is not going to get you back the line you want. It's going to end it completely. Behaving poorly on their social media is not going to get you what you want. It's going to get you ignored. Like seriously, right now a lot of you look as bad as that new Howleen's hair does.

And that's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

So bad.

As for DCSG, I think the constructive criticism of saying we need more characters as dolls is fine, as long as you follow my first point up there. But MH didn't just drop five lines of new characters right away. At the beginning, before all the crazy movies, they were added very gradually. We had to wait for Ghoulia and Holt. We had to wait for Spectra and Abbey. DCSG is a bit slow, yes. I agree to that. They could have had a new line of two or three newbies released at the same time along with some of the more basic lines or specialty lines like the origins exclusives.

I do think it's wrong that we don't have more of the main cast out before we get Blackfire, who's had all of two appearances.

I do think it's wrong that Starfire has a third, non-basic doll when Bumblebee, Katana, Poison Ivy and Harley still only have two doll releases. And for Bee, Harley and Ivy, one of those is a basic. And for Katana, it's the same outfit in different variations.

But I saw a lot of complaining under Harley's photo today and I don't agree with that. Like it or not, she's a member of the main cast and she's only had two dolls. A third is no big deal. It's not like she's one of the overloaded trio.

Does Mattel need to realize that they need to give us more character variety or the line is going to tank? Yes.

Does that mean we need to complain about every doll that isn't a new character? No. Not if it's another underused character finally getting some attention.

Likewise Cheetah. They gave us a new character in a regular release and people complained, as if this hadn't just happened last year with Katana. As if it shouldn't be celebrated that people without the funds to buy the exclusive one and oh, I dunno, say, THE TARGET MARKET will now have easier access to Cheetah.

Entitlement. It's all a bunch of entitlement. It has gotten out of control.

So yes. Grow up. If you cannot handle collecting lines for children without behaving like a child, perhaps you should find a new hobby that's actually for people your age.

5 comments:

THANK YOU. I keep forgetting I'm dealing with grown-ups here, because most behavior I'm seeing is that of whiny kids. It's getting tiring. And I've said it somewhere before, when my biggest worry about some sort of doll reveal is 'Great, people are not going to shut up about this', it's very likely not the doll that's the issue here.

I completely agree. It's a case of spoiled children not having what they loved anymore. Am I disappointed by some of Mattel's decisions? Yeah. But my wallet's not complaining, and there's still a lot I love.

Honestly, I think the most obnoxious behavior I've seen are these fan redesigns going around. It's not the action, necessarily. I'm okay with people drawing new looks and versions of characters. It's the intent to "fix" the designs shown here that bugs me. It's arrogant and disrespectful to present your interpretation of something as automatically better, and I learned that the hard way, having been guilty of similar behavior before. I've grown past it, but now it's a pet peeve. Like it or not, someone put effort into those toy designs on the shelves, according to the standards put out by executives, which aren't really arguable on the designers' part. It's not realistic thinking. And if you don't like the thing anyway, why vindictively redesign it? Do you really hate a kids' toy release SO much that you can't just ignore it, but you have to actively reshape it into something more acceptable even though you don't want it in the first place? What?

It's a different form of the brand, and the best thing to do is just to continue supporting it with the things you like. Poor Aliva Stein. I'm on her side.